We Were Brothers
by Blitzy-chan
Summary: They thought they had defeated him. But they should have known better. He had once been a Ghost, after all, and Ghosts were known to emerge from the shadows and disappear in the sunlight. Their mistake would be costly, not only to the captured, but to the one who was left behind.
1. Chapter 1

**I really shouldn't have to say this, but this does contain spoilers. So if you don't want to know what happens in the campaign, don't read this story, cause it'll ruin the whole thing for you. I'm only going to say this here, because every chapter could have spoilers for one point in the story. This will also contain information from the Rorke Files, so if you haven't found all of them, or don't want to know the content of them, then I'd suggest you hit the back button.**

**Now that the spoiler alerts are out of the way. I'm surprised there aren't more stories focused on the ending of the campaign, and its fallout.**

**For those of you who may be reading my story "Perfect Timing" I want to inform you that it is currently on hiatus. I am not happy with the way it's being written, and the overall plot itself, so I'm taking the story back to the drawing board.**

**I do not own Call of Duty, and no profit is made from this work of fiction. It is written for the sole purpose of the entertainment of its writer and reader(s).**

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It was over.

The Federation was in a full retreat; they had sustained heavy casualties when their own weapon, LOKI, was turned against them. But that wasn't the only blow that would cripple the Federation. They had lost their greatest weapon, their greatest hunter, killed by two brothers hellbent on avenging the death of their father. It had nearly cost the two of them their lives, but some way, some how, the two made it out alive. Battered and beaten, but alive.

The two leaned against a rock. It wasn't the most comfortable position to be in; the surface was rough, and the rock poked at Logan's back, but it was something solid to support the battered bodies of the two soldiers. The missiles still fell from the sky, targeting what was left of the Federation force. Logan's mind wandered, remembering what had happened earlier. He nearly lost David today. There had been many close calls in the past, but nothing had come as close as this. It wasn't a stray bullet caught in the Kevlar Vest covering David's chest this time. It had been worse, much worse.

David threw his weapon to the side when the gun was pointed at Logan's head. Hesh was Logan's older brother, and he played the role well. Hesh would do whatever it took to keep his younger brother safe. If he had to, David would give up his own life just to keep his brother safe. But Hesh also knew Logan would do the same for him. The two never admitted the fact to each other, but they didn't need to. The two brothers had always been close, even as young kids. Elias had always said the two were strongest when they were together, and the two made one hell of a team.

Rorke had shot Hesh in his abdomen, and still holding Logan as a hostage, pointed the gun at Hesh's head. It had been the fact the two brothers wanted Rorke dead, no matter the cost, that saved the both of them. Merrick's voice had startled Rorke when he said the checkmate had been confirmed, and Rorke demanded the elder brother tell him what he had done. It was over, Hesh had said. Rorke's voice was a mix of shock, awe, fear, and realization when he spoke those two words, 'shit, son,' as the missile from LOKI hit its final target: the train.

Rorke knew it was over.

But somehow, the three of them survived the impact when the train derailed into the water. It wasn't just the three soldiers who survived; somehow, the windows all remained intact, keeping the room from flooding. Bur Rorke wasn't yet dead, and the fight continued. The two brothers hadn't completed their mission yet. Hesh used a fire extinguisher to keep Rorke from killing his younger brother with the Magnum, the bullet hitting something behind Logan when the finger slipped against the trigger. The gun was knocked from Rorke's grasp, and Logan crawled towards the weapon. Rorke and Hesh engaged in hand to hand combat, but quickly Rorke gained the upper hand. Logan fired the gun multiple times, but the empty chamber caused the gun to click with each attempt to fire, drawing Rorke's attention. The distraction was enough for Hesh to move the knife from its position above his chest and reach into a pocket of his Kevlar vest to throw multiple bullets at Logan to fill the empty gun. Logan caught a single bullet and loaded it into the chamber. Rorke must have found the single bullet more of a threat then Hesh because when the bullets were thrown, his attention turned from one brother to the other, and he tried to get to Logan, but Hesh kept him pinned against his own body, holding him in place. Logan aimed the gun and fired at Rorke, aiming at the male's heart. When the bullet was fired, the train lurched very slightly, but the slight movement was enough to move Rorke and Hesh towards the left. The bullet, intended for the heart, instead tore through the abdomen of both men before piercing the window behind the two soldiers. The crack quickly buckled under the weight of the water on top of it, and the whole window gave way. The water quickly flooded the room.

The two of them nearly drowned, but they had grown up at the beach; Logan spent his childhood and adolescent years in the water. He knew how to swim, and his years of being in the military, along with the training his father put him through, strengthened his body. Being in the ocean made him a swimmer, and his training gave him the strength to carry his seemingly dead brother with him. It had been a close call, but the two of them made it to the surface of the water, onto the coast, and leaning against the large rock.

Hesh used the radio on his Kevlar vest to notify Merrick that the two of them were alright, and Rorke was dead. Merrick was sending a recon team to get them. The only thing the two brothers could do now was wait, watching as the missiles from LOKI still reigned down from the sky and the sand clung to their wet clothing.

It was over.

The sound of the missiles colliding with whatever targets they found drowned out the approaching footsteps, until they were beside Logan. Finally hearing the noise, the male turned his head, believing it to be the recon team. He knew it an enemy when a boot connected with his face, smashing his head against the rock he was leaning against. His eyes lost focus for a second as his head exploded in pain, and he was sure his nose was broken. Blood flowed from his nose and into his mouth, the metallic taste strong. Despite all this, he still reached for the knife kept in his vest, its weight familiar, fingers easily finding the grooves along its handle. He stabbed the knife at the assailant, but he easily deflected the knife by grabbing onto Logan's arm and used his elbow to break the bone held captive in his grasp. There was the sickening sound of the snap of a bone, and the pain attacked Logan with renewed vigor. His vision darkened from the pain, but he did not cry out. Logan was sure the sound of the fighting had to draw Hesh's attention, but Logan knew his brother was too weak to do anything to help him out. The assailant's fist collided with Logan's face again, distorting his vision and sending another wave of pain crashing over him.

Logan tried to get up and defend both he and his brother, but the pain in his right arm intensified tenfold when he put even the slightest of weight on it. The attempt was quickly abandoned, and his arm lay limp at his side, throbbing in pain. It was painful, but it was bearable. He was a soldier, he had to be used to pain. Logan's face focused on his assailant.

The attacker walked in front of the two, his back to them as he looked at the falling LOKI missiles, and the damage in the water. Most of it was the wreckage of the train and the tracks that separated from what remained of the tracks. The two brothers could get a good look at the face of their assailant, and Logan realized with a jolt of shock and fear that it was Rorke. Some way, somehow, he escaped the wreckage of the train and the water, and managed to sneak up on them. Where the hell was that recon team?

Rorke had his right hand on the bullet wound in his abdomen, his left arm hanging limp at his side. His head motioned to the wreckage in the ocean, just off the shore, and where the LOKI missiles still fell from the otherwise tranquil blue sky. "Look at what you did." Hesh leaned forward slowly, reaching for something; a rock maybe? Logan wasn't sure if the movements were so slow because of the pain his brother was in, or if he didn't want to alert Rorke of his movements, but if he had to guess, he'd say it was a combination of the two. Whatever the case, Rorke did notice the movement, and kicked Hesh in the face, hard. The force of the attack had Hesh's head smashing against the rock behind him, his already battered body falling to the side, unconscious.

Rorke glanced at Hesh, whose prone body lay unmoving. His gaze then returned to the younger of the two brothers. The fleeting thought that Rorke seemed to concentrate more on Logan than Hesh crossed his mind, but didn't linger long. Rorke's left arm pointed towards Logan. "You're good." The former Ghost approached Logan, who could do nothing but stare at the male, his body was too weak to try and fight the man off. Logan narrowed his eyes into a glare, but the emotion was hidden behind the dark woven fabric of his father's mask. Rorke leaned beside the incapacitated Ghost. "You would have been a hell of a Ghost." The compliment should have brought him pride, but coming from this man, from Rorke, somehow made the compliment sound like a curse. The feeling that the compliment brought was the opposite of the pride he felt welling in his chest when Hesh told him he was proud of him just minutes ago. That compliment had been sincere, and there was no hidden undertone in it. "But that's not gonna happen." Rorke had leaned closer to Logan at the last comment, but now, there were less than a few inches separating the two. Logan could do nothing but stare up at his enemy; he would have spit in his face if it weren't for the mask covering his mouth. "There ain't gonna be any Ghosts." A smirk twisted Rorke's face as he leaned away from Logan. Dread filled the male. The smirk on Rorke's face had his gut twisting in a negative way, and Logan couldn't shake this gut feeling that Rorke wasn't just going to kill him. He and Hesh would be dead already if that were the case. Hesh. He was both glad and scared he was still alive. Logan didn't care what happened to him, as long as Hesh didn't suffer. If Rorke wasn't interested in killing the elder brother, what did he have planned for the two of them?

"We're gonna destroy them together."

Logan especially didn't like the sound of that. Rorke sounded sure Logan would betray his comrades, betray his own brother, the only family he had left. That confidence had to stem from something, Rorke wasn't foolish. He had once been a Ghost, and a damn good one at that. He wasn't always the man that stood in front of him, taunting him. He had been tortured, and someone, something, had twisted him into the ultimate Ghost Hunter.

And now, that someone, something, wanted to change Logan into what Rorke had become.

The larger male looked down at Logan's feet, and grabbed his right one. The grip was firm, and Logan couldn't shake out of the grasp. He tried kicking at the male, but that too failed. Rorke grunted as he straightened up and started to haul the younger male away from his brother. Logan rolled onto his stomach, his right arm pinned under him. It was only then that Logan noticed the pool of blood that he had been sitting in. Where had he been injured so badly? He felt the sand piling against the arm under him, pushing at it. That, coupled with the weight of Logan's body being on the broken appendage caused the pain to propel itself through his body. But the adrenaline brought on by the fear dulled the pain's sharpness, and Logan tried to escape from the older man's iron like grip. His left hand scrabbled at the ground, trying to stop Rorke from dragging him away. "Logan." He wasn't sure when his brother regained consciousness, but Hesh was now awake, his body leaning towards his younger brother.

Hesh rolled onto his stomach, eyes locking onto Logan's body. He tried to crawl towards his brother, to stop Rorke from taking him away, but his body wouldn't move. Helpless, he reached out towards Logan. "Logan!" The distance between the two brothers continued to increase, and as the distance increased, so too did the panic both brothers felt. Logan clawed desperately at the ground, trying to break free of Rorke's grasp, though deep inside his mind, he knew it was futile, he was just too weak. As the distance between the two brothers kept increasing, Logan's desperate clawing suddenly stopped. He reached out with his hand towards his brother, as if the force of willpower and desperation would give Hesh the strength he needed to stop this. "LOGAN!" The panic in his elder brother's voice was unmistakable, and Hesh didn't try to hide it.

It was over.

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**I always appreciate constructive criticism. Leave me a review with your thoughts.**


	2. Chapter 2

The blades from the chopper sliced effortlessly through the air, kicking up sand and dust as it was lowered slowly towards the ground. The blades slowed their motion to a lazy trail as the engine shut off, slowly coming to a complete halt. The two occupants in the helicopter, a German Shepherd and its handler, waited. The male knelt beside the dog, holding onto the Kevlar vest the war dog possessed, the Shepherd sitting beside the male, ears perked up and listening as it panted.

The male left go of the vest, and the dog darted from the helicopter, taking off through the sand, focused on a single thing. The handler shouted after the dog, commanding it to heel, however, the dog ignored the order, causing the handler to curse as he reached for his Honey Badger and jumped from the helicopter, chasing after the dog at a hard, steady pace.

"Riley, heel!"

But the German Shepherd had already stopped, its attention focused solely on the male laying next to the rock, unconscious. Riley whined softly as he pawed at Hesh's shoulder with his right foot, trying to rouse his unconscious master. Keegan knelt beside the dog, gently pushing at him to get him to move. "It's alright boy, he'll be fine." The Ghost sniper turned to face Hesh. "Now wake the hell up so I don't have to feel bad because I lied to the pooch." Keegan shook Hesh's shoulder, gently at first, but slowly getting more forceful when the male didn't wake. "Hesh, wake up, now!" The black haired male shoved roughly at the other Ghost's shoulder, which seemed to do the trick. Hesh's head moved slightly to the side, eyelashes fluttering slightly as his fingers twitched. Keegan sat back and waited.

Riley barked, bending his head to lick at Hesh's face, which really did the trick. Hesh's eyes scrunched shut tightly as he moved his head to the left, hands reaching up to shove the dog away. "Quit it Riley." His voice was hoarse as he spoke, and unsurprisingly, Riley didn't listen. Keegan laughed softly as he pulled Riley back by his Kevlar vest, allowing Hesh to sit up, which he did with some difficulty. "Keegan?" The elder Walker questioned, his hand moving to pet Riley's neck. "Where's Logan?" He paused, his eyes widening as he looked around. "Where's Rorke?"

Keegan knelt beside the male. "Rorke's dead Hesh. You and Logan killed him."

Hesh shook his head furiously from side to side, then grabbed onto the hem of Keegan's inner shirt collar and pulled him closer. "No he's not Keegan. The bastard's alive. He took Logan, Keegan. Keegan," Hesh paused, tightening his grip on Keegan's shirt collar. "He said he and Logan were gonna destroy the Ghosts together." Hesh stared into the eyes of his comrade, his own flashing in defiant anger. The elder male stared into the Walker's eyes for a long moment, before nodding his head.

"Alright Hesh. I'll notify Merrick." Hesh nodded, letting go of Keegan's collar as his body lost its rigid posture and he sank back onto the sand, his eyes closing. The elder Ghost placed a hand on Hesh's shoulder, glancing at the male. "We'll find your brother, Hesh." He pressed the side button on his radio, the familiar cackling sound filling the clearing when the communicator was used. "Merrick, it's Keegan."

A bit of crackling from Merrick's end before they heard the voice of their acting commander. "Keegan, have you found the Walker boys?"

"Hesh is with me, but Rorke took Logan."

There was a pause on the other end. "Roger, Keegan. Find our boy and bring him home."

Though the male knew Merrick wouldn't be able to see it, he nodded anyways. "Roger that." The transmission between the two stopped, and Keegan knelt closer to Hesh, shifting his weight onto the balls of his feet as he leaned towards the younger male, lifting his right arm around his shoulder, supporting the weight Hesh couldn't hold himself. "Let's take it nice and easy Hesh." As Keegan stood, the male adjusted Hesh's weight until he was satisfied Hesh could handle the weight he was left with, and Keegan could walk however far he knew he'd have to. Once that was done, he turned to look at the younger male. "How's your other arm? Think you'd be able to shoot a pistol?" Hesh didn't even look at him when he nodded. Keegan handed Hesh his sidearm, which was kept at the other male's side, gripped loosely in his hands.

It was Hesh that gave the order to Riley to find Logan's scent, which the dog obeyed immediately. When Riley caught the scent, he turned to the two humans and barked once, his tail wagging as he waited for the command. Hesh told him to track the scent, and Riley had his nose to the ground, following the same path Hesh had watched his brother being dragged from earlier.

Keegan's eyes remained towards the ground; it was clear that someone had been dragged. He didn't doubt it was Logan in the slightest. The shifting sands were starting to hide the small dips in the ground and starting to make it look more natural, but Keegan was a sharpshooter. He was alive because his eyesight was keen enough to spot subtle differences in shape, color, or even size. He had once picked out the muzzle of another's gun sticking out among the rubble fifty meters away; picking up the difference between natural dips in the sand and that caused by some human intervention was like child's play for him.

The pair trudged onward, and Keegan was aware that the longer they walked, the more weight Hesh leaned onto him. It was a gradual increase, and Keegan only noticed it when he was practically supporting all of Hesh's body weight. The male really had taken a beating, and Keegan couldn't blame him. "Hesh, slow down, let's rest for a bit. I'll call in Kick, and you ca-"

"NO!" Hesh, whose head had been lobbing towards the side, shot towards him suddenly, startling Keegan. The voice was forceful, and Keegan could make out the panic in it. "No, I won't rest until we find Logan."

"Hesh, we may not find him. Rorke has the advantage here."

If glares could kill, Keegan would have died under the one Hesh sent him. The younger male's eyes were blazing in a myriad of emotions: anger, determination, and fear being the most forceful. Keegan knew Hesh would never rest until the missing brother was found. It could be an issue, and he'd have to speak with Merrick about it. In any case, the elder Ghost was sure Hesh would need to be watched that he didn't do anything stupid in rage, fear, or panic.

Their progress in tracking Rorke was slow, due in whole to the stubbornness of Hesh, who despite his beaten and tired body, refused to remain behind while his brother was missing. Perhaps it was better that Hesh stay with Keegan anyways. Keegan was aware of the very slight chance of finding Logan on the beach, but he would follow his track wherever it led. Hesh was weak from his previous mission, and Keegan wouldn't risk a Federation patrol finding a weak and helpless Hesh. They already lost one brother that day, and Keegan wasn't going to add their new field commander to the list of growing deceased Ghosts.

Riley's whine had the two men pausing as the canine sniffed the ground. "No," Hesh muttered beside him and Keegan felt the male's body sag against him. He had been hoping against both hope and logic they would find Logan, and they would stop Rorke, once and for all. Keegan glanced at the male, knowing what he was thinking. Hesh was blaming himself. He knew the feeling, and he didn't comment on it. There wasn't any reason to tell Hesh that it wasn't his fault, the eldest Walker brother would not believe him and probably would have shrugged him off.

"I'll search the area. Riley, stay with Hesh." As Keegan started lowering the wounded Ghost to the ground, Hesh started to protest. The other's teammate shook his head. "No Hesh, you are staying here with Riley while I go on alone. You're slowing me down, and right now speed and stealth is the only chance Logan has." Hesh didn't respond to Keegan's words, but he stopped struggling and settled on the ground, the sidearm gripped tightly in his arms. It seemed he was trying to prove to either Keegan or himself that he was not helpless. It could have been both. Once satisfied that Hesh wouldn't get up and search for Logan the moment Keegan turned his back, the sniper went to work searching for the male and quickly locating the tracks of a jeep he spotted earlier. Keegan started following them.

The sun was blistering hot against his back, and the farther he walked, the more his original suspicion that they wouldn't find Logan became less like a suspicion and more like an assurance. Still, he did not want to return to Hesh without having at least some indication of where Rorke had taken Logan. Keegan stopped abruptly when he saw the jeep, seemingly abandoned. The sound of an engine was absent, and the back door on the left side was open. "I've found the jeep Hesh, but it looks abandoned. Moving in to check it out now."

Donning his Honey Badger, Keegan approached the vehicle slowly, blue eyes watching for any kind of movement. He approached the vehicle from the left side, his rifle aimed towards the open door. As he approached, Keegan quickly scanned the inside of the vehicle with the muzzle of his weapon and found it empty, probably for a while now. With a sigh, the Ghost lowered the gun towards his side, searching inside the vehicle for any type of clue that would lead to Logan's location. The back left seat was covered in blood, which he assumed belonged to an injured and missing Logan Walker. He was not looking forward to delivering this news to the other Walker brother. "Hesh, I found the vehicle. It's abandoned. There are signs a helicopter landed here recently." He paused. "I'm sorry Brother, Logan's not here." The Ghost checked to see if the keys were still in the vehicle, but found no sign of them. It looked like he was walking back. "I'll notify Merrick and have him check to see if anyone's spotted a helicopter, friendly or otherwise, in the area."


End file.
